want to learn vb6

[jtb19nh]

I would like to learn vb6.. I have NO experience in code... Is this something i could teach my self with books and stuff... What kind of math skills are required???

[~s.o.s~]

VB as such is pretty easy language to learn for a beginner. So don't worry, you can easily learn VB using some good books and reading forum threads for the problems people have previously faced.

No math as such is required for coding VB applications, but then again it depends on the kind of domain you are interacting with. But for general purpose application development, only school level mathematics is required.

[jtb19nh]

well thats good news... can you recomend any books to get me started

[ses5909]

Is there a reason you want to start with VB and not just try VB.Net?

[groovyf]

I found the Wrox Press books really helpful when I was trying to teach myself. Though I did have a grasp of BASIC from many years ago.

[pty]

VB6 came out nearly 10 years ago and apart from maintaining old apps nobody really uses it (I'll probably get told otherwise but nobody uses it for anything serious).

I suggest you try learning something that people currently use; the old VB developers now tend to be using VB.net or C#.

You can get Visual Studio Express that should be suitable for learning the ins and outs of the language but it is limited and the full version is expensive.

[jbennet]

vb6 is easy for beginners im studying it at college but started when i was 13 and its very good to learn.

Basic high school algebra at most is all the maths stuff you need (and a knowlege of operator order i.e where to use brackets in calculations)

[WaltP]

VB6 came out nearly 10 years ago and apart from maintaining old apps nobody really uses it (I'll probably get told otherwise but nobody uses it for anything serious).

See this thread, starting 3rd post from the bottom... ;)

[~s.o.s~]

See this thread, starting 3rd post from the bottom... ;)

:D

Yeah, I guess Mr. Mel went a bit far away saying that thing. Must have made all the VB programmers reading that post kill him...;)

[jbennet]

the beta version of ms antispyware was actually made in VB6

[pty]

I guess the last contract I worked on left a bad VB6 related taste in my mouth.

If you want to start with something like that I'd recommend Delphi - at least it will get you into good habbits and your code may have a chance of not looking slightly spaghettiish

[jbennet]

but delphi isnt free

[pty]

and VB is?

[jbennet]

VB express is free
VB6 costs like £10 for working model
and i gotthe whole of VS 2005 Standard edition on an acedemic licence for £40

[pty]

VB express is free
VB6 costs like £10 for working model
and i gotthe whole of VS 2005 Standard edition on an acedemic licence for £40

Delphi is priced similarlay (personal is free, Delphi 5 (which came out at roughly the same time as VB6 costs peanuts) and the latest educational licences of Delphi cost about 50 quid.

We are straying from the thread; having used both though (am sure other people who have used both environments will agree) that with Delphi it is easier to produce good code and it gets you into good habbits, not to mention the fact that its a LOT faster and has proper OO capabilities, a better UI than VB6 (MS poached the guy who lead the project to make VS and .net) and is just generally a better product/language/way of life.

[jbennet]

i tried delphi when i first started coding and found it too cryptic. I found c# to be much the same too

[zaf]

I found the following books really helpful, when I was learning VB6. Both come from Wrox Press, and are written by a guy with a great sense of humour (which can really alleviate the hard work).
I don't know if they are still in print, but I've added the ISBN's, as you may be able to get hold of them through a library.

Peter Wright - Beginning Visual Basic 6 - ISBN 1-861001-05-3
Peter Wright - Beginning Visual Basic 6 Objects - ISBN 1-861001-72-X

It's important that you read the books in that order, as you could call the second one a "sequel".

If you want to learn VBA, then

Steve Cummings - VBA for Dummies - ISBN-0-7645-0258-1

is a good one, though not as humorous or well-constructed as the previous two.